Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to present how the following antecedents: external contextual knowledge; internal environment; the founder or owner and biographical factors impacted on entrepreneurial orientation and therefore predicted firm performance. The paper further supports that a firm’s knowledge of its external contextual environment, which is mediated by its internal organization, independently or interactively predicts entrepreneurial orientation and if entrepreneurial orientation is strategically adopted it will lead to an increase in firm performance. Data from 500 small businesses in the Gauteng Province, South Africa were used. Exploratory Factor analysis was used to test factor structures. A process of model modification using General Linear Modeling was followed and a final predictive model is presented.